Warner Bros. final studio to set animation strategy

Committing to the genre after years of fits and starts, Warner Bros. on Monday said it will produce one animated movie per year beginning in 2014.

Every other major studio in Hollywood has established an animation strategy in the past few years, with some such as 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures and Walt Disney Studios making the movies in-house and others like Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures relying on outside companies with which it makes deals.

While animated franchises like "Toy Story," "Ice Age" and "Despicable Me" have been among the industry's most profitable, Warner's approach has been more cautious. Its last two animated films, 2011's "Happy Feet Two" and 2010's "Legend of the Guardians," were both box-office flops. Prior to that, the studio hadn't released an animated movie since 2007's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."